Friday, March 03, 2006

Frittata

Last night I made a tofu frittata (from Bryanna Clark Grogan's book Nonna's Italian Kitchen) with slices of potato and a bit of Smart Ground cooked in. This morning I baked spelt biscuits and made biscuit sandwiches with the frittata and slices of Tofutti cheese. I packed them along with peaches canned in juice and some lightly steamed green beans.Verdict: I just love all of Bryanna's recipes -- she's a vegan goddess! I made the frittata last night after shmoo went to bed, intending to use it for lunch purposes only. But it came out so lovely and golden and tasty...shmoo was lucky there was enough left for lunch! He ate all the green beans, peaches, frittata and cheese, and left one biscuit behind. 4 stars.

Hi! I just found the link to your blog from the blogger main page and I love it. I became vegan as a New Year's resolution, so I'm always looking for good recipes and reviews. So far, I've been cooking almost exclusively out of Vegan Planet, and have only found one disappointing recipe in that book. Butthis looks like a good site, espeically since pretty soon I'll be back in school and need ideas about bringing lunches. Great site!

Continuing from the thread below, as I understand it, topping mujadarrah with a dollop of yogurt (or a vegan substitute) is standard. Without it, it just doesn't taste as good, it's missing that extra zing.

I followed a link from another site to your blog yesterday. Last night I read every entry in the lunch box blog. I am not a vegan, not even vegetarian, but for the last year I have been trying to eat better. I discovered that veggie burgers (well, some of them) are even better than hamburgers and I'm interested in more healthy substitutes. I started bringing my lunch to work last year instead of eating fast food every day (and have since lost 100 pounds, with 27 more to go) and your blog is giving me a lot of great ideas.

I ordered one of the lunchboxes today, as it seems better than my current method of various Rubbermaid containers thrown in a vinyl lunch bag. I'd like to know when the cookbook you've mentioned in your blog will be coming out. I plan on checking out some of the other books you've mentioned, but I'd really love to see YOUR recipes!

you are truly an inspiration. I have been toying with the idea of becoming a vegetarian (and then vegan) for a while now. I have lost more than 50 pounds over the last year and I feel great, but now I also want to feel good about how my actions affect the world around me. I do a lot of volunteer work and I know that at times doing a little bit to help someone feels like a drop in the ocean, and I can imagine that sometimes being a vegan activist must feel the same. And yet, you have touched me and encouraged me to make a decision. :) I can't imagine what I will do when Shmoo is off for the summer! As a beginner, I do have a couple of questions. I'd like to know about honey and why it's not vegan, and also...I was looking at the egg replacement products and they seem to be mostly chemicals. I know EVERYthing is basically a mix of chemicals, but do you feel products like that are also natural enough for the environment?

I just have to say that those green beans look SO fresh - often I see them in stores already with brown spots and withering... these look 'just picked' and full of goodness - and cooked just the right amount of time, yum! :)

I love when so many of us post and say stuff like "I'm not even vegetarian and I read your site every day for inspiration." :) It's nice to have attainable goals in the 'more vegtables/less animal products' direction, even if not all of us are going to be able to commit to an overall vegan plan.

Those biscuits look beautiful!! I just got some of the Gimme Lean 'beef' and I was wondering if there was a particular brand of vegan cheese that you prefer. I have Follow Your Heart chedder and monterrey jack. I thoght the cheddar was pretty nasty! I haven't tried the other one yet but I hope it is better!

Thanks for the plug on "This Can't Be Tofu" last week! I actually have that book already but never tried the egg salad. I did a basic stripped down version of it for dinner with leftover soup last night and we ate almost all of it! It was better than real egg salad!! I used the Follow Your Heart mayo made with Grapeseed oil. That is an excellent mayo substitute and I am very impressed with it. It even smells like it!

Thanks, Dreena! We are in love with these "french green beans" they have recently started selling at our grocery store. They are smaller, thinner, and fresher than the regular green beans and only take 4-5 minutes to cook.

Every time I eat them I mourn once again over the fact that I can't get green beans to grow in our soil here. We seem to have some kind of bean blight that kills them just after their first leaves unfurl. Oh well, there's always the farmer's market...

>>what time do you get up in the morning?

Well, this morning I got up around 6:15. I can practically make biscuits while half-asleep, so maybe I didn't really wake up until 6:45...

Stefania--Many people consider honey to not be vegan because bees are harmed and exploited in the making of it.

Ener-G Egg Replacer is basically potato starch. You can really do without commercial egg replacers, generally. Applesauce or mashed banana or tofu or ground flaxseed in a little water work just as well. Hope that helps!

Hi, i'm a sort of vegetarian, so i came here and...wow, your blog makes me hungry, those recipes are great!!!I will come back and stole some of your secrets ;-) by the way, i had to look uo in the dictionary to find out what a "shmoo" is, so from wikipedia it is " a fictional cartoon creature, created and first drawn by the cartoonist Al Capp in his newspaper comic strip Li'l Abner"... is it right?? Have a nice cooking day!luna

Also Ener-G, and I think one other brand, are the only ones that make vegan egg replacer, most egg replacements that you find at the general grocery store are just egg whites with crap and coloring mixed in, GROSS!Ener-G is merely a mixture of potato, and other starches, such as tapioca, and works fantastically in some recipes and horrible in others, also it cannot be "eaten" plain or anything.Depending on the recipe, and what eggs were supposed to do orginally (levening, moisture, binding etc.), you have to learn to substitute with other kinds of egg replacer, ener-g, applesauce, tofu, banana, flax seed and so fourth. Egg replacement can be hard work :)

oh, man, jennifer, i had one of those almond butter smackers today! so tasty. not at all like a reese's peanut butter cup, so much better...i loved the texture. it was kinda like a way tastier rice krispie treat....something like that. verdict: expensive, but delicious.

I happened to see your site on my own www.progressivevalues.blogspot.com Website listings for blogs of note, and I sure enjoy looking at all your very creative vegan meal arrangements.

I've been a vegan for several years now and not only has it improved my health, but the meals can be very tasty.

One excellent vegan product for cooking is AFC Baked Bean Curd. It tastes a little like smoked turkey or some other meat yet is entirely made from soybeans and related products. It tastes great cold, and is the best meat substitute that I've ever found.

You find this brand of baked bean curd at some Asian grocery stores. As the meat supply in Asia grows more dangerous from bird flu and mad cow scares, baked bean curd is growing in popularity.

I've been reading this blog religiously since October, and I finally bought one of the laptop lunches. I'm vegan too, and I think you should make a vegan laptop lunches cookbook like the one that comes with the box. But a vegan version!!

Hi Jennifer - I was sent to your web page from a friend of mine and I really love it. My kids are 3 and 16 mos old so I'm not packing lunches for them for school yet, but I will be - school lunches around here are not very healthy at all. We are omnivores but I am trying to eat vegan (cut out the dairy and cheese) more and more. I've been meal planning 1 meat, 1 rice, 1 pasta, 1 soup for each week (with leftovers on the off days), so usually meat is a once a week thing. Anyway the fritatta looks really good. I am learning day by day to cook and I only work from recipes. Would it be possible for you to post some of the recipes so those of us inspired by your web site can make some of the meals? that would be so awesome. Thanks for such an inspiring food blog.

Also, I agree that sometimes there can be some scary chemical stuff in vegan food-- as much as I like things like tofutti sour cream etc., it is processed.

I try to cook unprocessed or less processed foods most of the time, but I don't mind using more processed foods sometimes. Tonight I'm cooking vegan for my confirmed omnivore parents. To make them feel a little more comfortable, I'm making "chicken" and "steak" fajitas. I think the processed meat analogues have their place, just as traditional vegan cooking does, too!

I think it's awesome that you're looking into going vegan. I'd look for "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis if you're looking for a good, solid text on vegan nutrition. Good luck!

Jennifer, Love your blog, your ideas, and your passion for healthy food! I've been following for a few weeks now. I was vegetarian for 9 years, until I started eating fish 3 years ago, but still eat mostly veg.

I see that shmoo likes Oreos, and I was wondering if you have a Whole Foods market nearby, because they have a store brand Oreo type cookie that tastes 100 times better (in my opinion), and probably has less bad stuff too. Don't think they come in chocolate cream though... :)

I see no difference. Just like in a non-vegan diet, it depends on how much you like to cook and what you like to make. If you need quick and convenient, vegan food can be as easy as opening a can of beans, throwing some frozen veggies in the microwave or steamer basket, and pulling out some wholewheat bread or crackers. Or slapping together a pb&j, heating up a can of soup, washing off a piece of fresh fruit, etc.

Some of my food is more labor-intensive, but that's because I'm passionate about cooking and like to spend time in the kitchen.

I'm a pretty low maintenance vegan. I throw together quick dishes of veggies, rice and beans. I eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies as snacks. I eat cereal and soymilk for breakfast and veggie or pbj sandwiches for lunch. Pasta is an easy standby with good'ole tomato sauce and fresh veggies to bulk it up.

Veg cooking is SO much easier. I had a horrible time trying to cook omni, I was always concerned I was going to poison myself with uncooked meat or something.

You can't undercook a broccoli people! Just makes it more yummy!

I cook all the time now, and actually have fun doing it. Yesterday I made lemon potatoes, a couscous and chick pea medly and lovely broccoli. The potatoes cooked a long time, but preparation was about half hour.

I made the tofu fish sticks this weekend and they were great! I left the almonds a bit chunky and used more onion / garlic powders, but I totally enjoyed them -- as did the three coworkers who got to try them. Thanks again for your inspiring lunches!

Hi, Alex! Oh, pretty much more of the same kinds of things. This weekend I made a vegan lasagna, because my shmoo loves Garfield, and Garfield loves lasagna. Therefore, my son loves lasagna, too. He eats it in raptures, quoting Garfield lines from his head. Really!

i like to make fritatta with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes, never thought of adding smart ground or ptoatoes in them. shall try next time.but i have a question....i got my firtatta recpeie from Vegan With A Vengence. How did you get your fritata to stay perfactly without falling apart. I read you used a bisquit cutter, but how come they look so.."together" (haha for the lack of a better word.)thanks!peace&love,vegan marissa

Hi, Vegan Marissa -- I looked at the recipe in VwaV, and it's different than Bryanna's recipe (the one I used). Bryanna's is more blended and soft and then sets up in the oven as it bakes. It can be cut into all kinds of shapes and doesn't crumble (I'm not saying it's better than the VwaV recipe, just different).